That Pain Remains The Doer's Own Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

That time to apologize,
For what has been done...
Has passed.
Acts of forgiveness and regret...
Are admirable.
But what truthfully can be accomplished now?
Those wounds inflicted have healed.
The anguish of betrayal has diminished
From its initial intent.
A mindset once narrow has broaden.
And the expression of fresh empathies...
Are as meaningless,
As the desire of one who is haunted by a guilt,
That another does not live with!
Especially since the one who currently suffers...
Will do it much longer,
Than the one who was meant to feel undue sorrow.
And a pain...
Each hour of each day of those yesterdays,
Have taken away!

That time to apologize,
For what has been done...
Has passed.
Acts of forgiveness and regret...
Are admirable.
But those confessions 'today'
Fall on deaf ears!
That person who needed to hear
What is being expressed now...
Does not sit where those 'proclamations'
Will lift a remorse now felt by the doer!
That pain remains the doer's own!